水、滾る [Mizu, Tagiru] (Water, Boiling or Seething, in Japanese) is the sophomore album by the duo of Belgian jazz pianist-keyboard player Casimir Liberski and Japanese drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, following Troubled Water (Totaliasm, 2024). Both albums were recorded at Jazz Spot Thelonious in Higashinakano, Tokyo, in February 2023 and captured a two-hour performance of the duo. Both albums feature artwork by Belgian visual artist Pascal Bernier. John Zorn (whose label, Tzasik, exposed Toshida’s work to Western audiences) recommended that both albums be mixed by James Dellatacoma (who mixed many Tzadik albums as well as the albums of Bill Laswell) and mastered by Michael Fossenkemper.
Liberski is one of the most gifted jazz pianists in Belgium who has recorded with American drummer Tyshawn Sorey and bassist Thomas Morgan, but Nintendo games, grunge and alternative rock, hip hop and TV cartoons influence his work. Prolific Yoshida is a generation older and is the founder of experimental Ruins (duo, solo, with saxes and more), and leads countless avant-rock bands. He is heavily influenced by the French prog-rock band Magma and is a long-running collaborator of Pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura. Liberski, who was a teenage fan of Ruins, organized a performance of Yoshida’s Sax Ruins (with sax player Ryoko Ono) in Brussels before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and joined the Sax Ruins set and later recorded a duo with Ono.
The album’s title faithfully captures the intense, raw force-of-nature atmosphere of this inspired meeting. The six pieces flirt with boiling intensity and imaginative sonic collisions, but each one has its distinct depth, energy and emotions, complementing the sonic palette of Troubled Water. This genre-defying, electrifying free improvised meeting moves seamlessly and restlessly between brutal and epic prog-rock to fiery, playful free jazz and from math punk to experimental, ambient voyages, just like a stormy sea that seeks moments of beautiful tranquility after an impetuous tempest.
Eyal Hareuveni
Casimir Liberski (piano, synthesizer), Tatsuya Yoshida (drums, vocals)
